Loose-fill insulation is used to insulate structures and buildings and is a quick and convenient alternative to insulation with mineral fiber isolation sheets. The loose-fill insulation is with the assistance of compressed air blown by an insulation apparatus into cavities in the building structure, such as for example into walls and on attics, forming a heat and cold insulation layer. The insulation used is mainly made of mineral fiber or cellulosic fiber such as pulp or pieces of paper. In order for the cellulosic fibers to be able to withstand the various conditions in building structures it is treated with various additives having fire retardant and other properties. Cellulosic fibers are organic and are therefore an environmental friendly and renewable insulation material. Loose-fill cellulose thermal insulation can be made out of recycled or newly produced paper cut into smaller pieces. These cut pieces of paper are easy and economic to produce and have a good insulation capacity at a relatively low density.
A known method of insulating building structures with loose-fill cellulose thermal insulation material can be described as follows. The loose-fill cellulose thermal insulation material is compressed into a density of 90-140 kg/m3 and put into bags to be transported to the building site. At the building site the bag is opened and the material is put into a hopper arranged in the insulation apparatus. In the hopper there is a device for picking apart and fluff up the compressed cellulose thermal insulation material into a density and form possible to blow into the building elements by using a compressed air source. The device for fluffing up the compressed cellulose thermal insulation material has in most insulation apparatuses been one or several rotating arms making a horizontal vortex in the material. Due to the power needed to break apart pieces from the compressed material, the engine driving the rotating arms has been forced to be very powerful. With relatively long arms it is also difficult to receive an even density of the fluffed insulation material. A material with an uneven density containing lumps of material is difficult to distribute into the structure.
Normally the transportation to the building site is made by a truck and semitrailer. A material with a density of 90-140 kg/m3 contains a large amount of air and only fills 30-50% of the trailer volume. It is therefore desirable to compress the loose-fill insulation material to a greater extent. However, due to the great amount of energy needed to break apart a compressed material it is difficult to use an even more compressed loose-fill material in an insulation apparatus according to the above description.
Further, when filling the apparatus with compressed insulation a great amount of dust arises from the open volume containing the loose-fill insulation material and the working environment in the vicinity of the apparatus is deteriorated.
The above mentioned difficulty is partly addressed by an apparatus for distributing wool or other loose fill insulation described in patent application US2006/0024456 A1. In the US application a bag with compressed loose fill insulation is placed in a chute which ends with a shredder that defines cuts in the compressed material. The cut parts are then broken into smaller pieces by a mechanism arranged between the blades. To receive a complete ripping of all the material, the smaller pieces of material are also transported through a second ripper arranged after the first shredder.
The apparatus according to US2006/0024456 A1 produces a fluffed insulation easy to blow into a structure. However it requires several complicated parts and it is also space requiring and difficult to transport.
The patent application NL 8204888A also discloses a loose fill insulation apparatus, however primarily used for mineral wool. This apparatus is beating the compressed material into smaller pieces by means of long ripping arms mounted on a cylinder rotating around a horizontal axis. In order to receive a less dense and more even material also a second rotating cylinder with attached ripping arms is used.
With this apparatus a two step process is needed to completely pick apart the material to be used for insulation. Further, with longer arms more power is required to rotate the cylinder.